Mr. Gavin Lawlor:

It is difficult to comment on that because I can comment only on the one in which I am involved, namely, the IPI. I can talk about how we do it, which is very open and transparent. When there is a call from the Department to put a nomination forward, we go out to all our members and invite people to put their names forward and ask them what to do. They put their names forward to us and in most cases, there is only one or two. We represent approximately 700 members. It is a significant undertaking to become a board member, particularly for a planner. If that is his or her sole profession at the end of it, he or she will not be paid for a year. Only certain people can do that and they have to be either in a certain family or in a financial circumstance to be able to afford to do that. It used to be the case that board members were compensated when they retired. They got a pension, which was modest but they got it straight away. That does not happen anymore. It now happens at the age of 65 because, in line with Deputies, there was a change. There is a problem and a difficulty, particularly for our industry and for architects, engineers and others who work in the built environment, because it encourages people who might be later in their career to want to get involved. That might not be such a bad idea either, given they will have a lot of experience, but it is a difficulty. Perhaps one way to look at that in the future is to provide some sort of reduced salary for the board member for the year after he or she retires to encourage more younger members.

Deputy Gould talked about the community and I agree. We would advocate for somebody who is a native Irish speaker to be on the board in order that the subtlety in the Irish language will not be lost in some of the oral hearings and hearings that come through. Another cohort is younger people. With the grey brigade, of whom I am now one, there is a danger people of an older generation will miss what is important in the community for people of a younger generation, and there is a stronger emphasis now on the environment, not least among the younger cohorts.